Anime Expo - Saturday - Industry Roundup

Anime Expo - Saturday - Industry Roundup

	Chad Kime of Pioneer Entertainment had video and music announcements. New series include Amazing Nurse Nakano and Panda Go Panda. The Akira movie will be remastered and re-released, possibly in theaters. The company will release the first videos of the Cardcaptors (a.k.a. Card Captor Sakura) TV dubs. The music group boa, which performed music for the Serial Experiments Lain series, has a contract with Pioneer and a music CD release is forthcoming. The Ranma 1/2 DVD's with the incorrect sound tracks will be remastered and Pioneer (which handles the discs for Viz) will set up an exchange program. And since Pioneer is switching DVD duplication companies, titles such as the El-Hazard DVD box set will be delayed because of longer deadlines from the new duplicator. "Our fiercest competition out there is every other title and video games. There's a lot of entertainment competition out there," said Kime.
	Distribution partners Shawn Kleckner of The Right Stuf (left) and Matt Greenfield from ADV Films (right) shared a panel. Kleckner said the release of the Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA series would conclude in the fall, with music videos to follow; that more Kimba the White Lion, Flint the time Detective and Assemble Insert was on the way, and the promised release of the Kare Kano series would be in the spring of 2001. The biggest cheer for the ADV announcements came when Greenfield said that ADV would re-release Robotech on DVD. Carl Macek would be part of the effort, Greenfield said, recording additional commentary tracks with the American actors for the Americanized series. (Of course, there was more information on the AnimEigo release of the original Superdimensional Fortress Macross series in another panel...)
	Toshifumi Yoshida of Viz Communications showed off the company's acquisition of the Aya no Ceres anime and manga created by Yu Watase, and the Revolutionary Girl Utena manga from Chiho Saito. Live-action films from Viz will include Moonlight Whispers (based on the Dance Until Tomorrow manga), Love and Pop , Welcome Back Mr. McDonald (still pending) and the yazuka movie The Most Terrible time in My Life. What about the upcoming Inu-Yasha anime? Yoshida dropped a roomful of hints (like how the anime comes from Viz' parent company and the original series was from Rumiko Takahashi and how the company has published the original manga), then settled for saying "We might be working on it." Another Viz representative called their Pulp anthology "the New York times of manga in the U.S." and said they're trying to discourage the image that some people have of the book as a hentai title.
	Ardith Santiago of Digital Manga, the company which began by selling Japanese screen tone and other art supplies, said they planned to expand into fan stuff such as Fushigi Yuugi art books, Studio Pierrot goods, and other souvenirs. "You go into the dealers' room and there's stuff that's really expensive that you want. We're going to make it less expensive," said Santiago. The web site that will sell these items also will offer an expanded version of the Anime News Service page, which plans to offer a search engine and bulletin board.
	Along with the previously-announced showings of Vision of Escaflowne on the Fox Kids Network and Blue Submarine No. 6 on the Cartoon Network, Bandai plans more Gundam, Angel Wing, Betterman, Fancy Lala, the Zemai retro-future series and Jubei-Chan (announced at Anime Central). Fans wanted to know how Escaflowne would be adapted for TV, and Bandai executives said it would be changed to meet FCC broadcast standards and Fox' standards and practices; the edits are out of Bandai's hands, they said. Those who want an uncut Escaflowne will be able to get a box set of DVD's which will be offered with replicas of Hitomi's tarot cards.
	What about the planned Animeigo release of the original Macross in subtitled form? Robert Woodhead of AnimEigo said the attempt to create the best possible digital video master has delayed the project as the company spent $100,000 to create that master from a 16mm print (ironically, it was the Harmony Gold print that was used by Carl Macek when he adapted Macross as Robotech). Woodhead emphasized that the Harmony Gold print was the best Macross print available anywhere. Animeigo plans to spend another $50,000 to have producer Shin Kurokawa touch up the master's remaining flaws. "This transfer will beat the crap out of anything else in the market," Woodhead said about the competing Macross and Robotech releases. However, the perfectionist production delays mean that the Macross release - which had been planned for summer, one year after AnimEigo announced plans for the re-issue - will not be ready until the Christmas shopping season at the soonest.